A. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to detection of quoted text within a document, and more particularly, to the detection and display of quoted text within an email message.
B. Background of the Invention
The importance of email technology in society today is well known. Email applications have become a common tool in both business and personal communication. A significant factor in the widespread adoption of email technology is the relative ease in which individuals may communicate using email. An individual may communicate a message to another individual by simply typing the message into a computer and clicking a mouse button. A response to this email can then be generated in a similar manner. A typical result of this process is an email thread in which multiple messages between multiple individuals are displayed on a computer screen, in which a history of messages and responses to an individual is shown.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network on which email messaging may occur. As shown, each of the computer clients, Client A 120, Client B 121, Client C 122, and Client D 123, are coupled to a network 100. This network may be a private network, a public network such as the Internet, or combination thereof. The computer clients (120, 121, 122, 123) are able to communicate with each other through virtual connections on the network 100, including email communications. This email communication between the multiple computer clients (120, 121, 122, 123) may produce an email thread in which messages from the clients (120, 121, 122, 123) are embedded. Over time, this email thread may become lengthy and complex due to the number of parties communicating and the number of messages embedded within the thread.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary email thread having multiple related email messages from different individuals embedded therein. This email thread 200 represents a typical exchange between multiple individuals whereby a number of related email messages are generated, sent to particular individuals and displayed as a conversation thread. As shown, the email thread 200 has an original email message (represented by a box) 210, located at the bottom of the thread, which was sent to Client B 121 from Client A 120. The email thread also has a second email message (represented by a box) 220, located in the middle of the thread, which was sent to Client C 122 and Client D 123 from Client B 121. A third email message (represented by a box) 230, located at the top of the email thread 200, was sent from Client C 122 to Client A 121, and provided a copy of the message to Client B 121 and Client D 123.
The email thread 200 may become confusing if the various email messages embedded within the thread are not properly highlighted or elided from the thread to enable a reader of the thread to identify email messages that she has not previously seen. In order to avoid confusion within a lengthy email thread, each text message needs to be clearly delineated from the other messages. Also, an individual should be able to quickly identify messages within this thread that have not been previously viewed. Accordingly, text, within email messages, that is being quoted from a message originally sent or previously read by the individual should be appropriately highlighted or elided. This highlighted or elided quoted text will allow the individual to more quickly identify message text that has not been read.
Referring to FIG. 2, the text within the email thread 200 should be highlighted or elided according to which client is displaying the thread 200. For example, if the thread 200 is displayed to a recipient on Client A 120, then the original text message 210 should be highlighted or elided because it was originally sent by the individual on Client A 120. If the thread 200 is displayed on Client B 121 to another recipient, then the original text message 210 should be highlighted or elided because it was previously read and the second text message 220 should be elided because it was originally sent by the recipient on Client B 121. This described format presents the email thread in a simple arrangement and better enables email communication between the various clients (120, 121, 122, 123).
Some current email applications delineate messages within an email thread by looking at headers within the thread. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, these applications would look for email headers 240 to segregate each of the text messages within the thread 200. However, these applications fail to specifically highlight or elide quoted text in relation to the recipient or client that is viewing the email thread 200. Oftentimes, in response to an email message, an individual may wish to input text or answer particular questions found within the body of the received email message itself. The responding email thread may become further difficult to read if this inserted text is not clearly identified within the thread.
Some current email applications also fail to properly compensate for modification, translation and interpretation errors caused by a network or email application. As an email file is being interpreted by different email applications, errors may occur within the body of the file such as an incorrect character coding or a mistranslated word. These errors may make it difficult to identify quoted text in the email thread because the quoted text was slightly and erroneously modified by an application. For example, characters may be incorrectly encoded by certain email applications or words may be mistranslated by translation software. These modifications result in erroneously modified blocks of text. Current email applications may be unable to compensate for such events and may display erroneously modified block of quoted text as new text that has not been previously viewed.
Current email applications also generally lack a dynamic ability to properly compensate for characters or HTML markups. As emails are processed by various applications, certain characters may be inserted (such as a “>” or “{”) for various purposes that may present certain problems in identifying quoted text. For example, some email applications rely solely on an identifier, such as “>” to identify quoted text. If this identifier is not inserted, then the application may be unable to properly identify quoted text. Also, inserted characters may cause an email application to miss quoted text because the quoted text was improperly modified, through the insertion of the character, by the email application. Furthermore, current web-based or mark up language compatible email applications may not be able to account for HTML markups that provide certain functionality such as text characteristics or locations when attempting to identify quoted text. As a result of these shortcomings in current email applications, certain email threads may be difficult to read or have unread text buried within other messages.
Accordingly, what is desirable is an improved system for addressing the above-described limitations of prior systems.